UK Budget Set to Raise Machine Games Duty, Industry Warns on Jobs
Ahead of Chancellor John Healey's budget, trade bodies and recruitment specialists tell SBC News that a higher Machine Games Duty could slow hiring and investment across UK betting shops.
Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey is widely expected to raise Machine Games Duty, the levy on gaming machines in betting shops, from 20% to 25% when he delivers his budget. The Social Market Foundation think tank has called for an even steeper rise, according to SBC News.
The government's rationale is straightforward: additional duty revenue would help fund Prime Minister Andy Burnham's investment and development plans, though SBC News notes the sums involved remain modest set against the scale of overall government spending and the UK's wider investment needs.
Betting industry figures argue ministers are not weighing the full consequences of the change. Peter Hannibal, Chief Executive Officer of the Gambling Business Group, which represents retail operators including betting shops, told SBC News the sector has already absorbed higher national insurance costs and steep energy prices. "The jobs are just not there at the moment, the investment's not there," he said, adding that uncertainty over tax policy discourages business investment.
Caroline Butler, Director of the TalentThrive advisory, said her chief concern was less about immediate redundancies than the longer-term effect on recruitment and the UK's standing as a gaming employment market. She said the early warning signs tend to be subtle: unfilled vacancies, trimmed recruitment budgets, delayed expansion and existing staff asked to do more with less. A further significant MGD rise, she said, would likely speed up those conversations, particularly for operators with heavy retail exposure.
Employment has become a central theme in the industry's budget lobbying, displacing the black market arguments that dominated previous years but failed to gain traction with government, SBC News reports. Betfred founder Fred Done and Entain Chief Executive Stella David have both raised employment concerns publicly in recent months, with gaming machines a key driver of margins in shops run by Betfred and by Entain's Ladbrokes Coral arm.
Alastair Cleland, Group Managing Director of Conxesus Group, said a further MGD increase would add pressure to employment in high-street betting shops and land-based gambling generally, where machine revenue is commercially significant. He said the industry's worry is the cumulative weight of successive tax changes rather than any single measure.
The budget is also expected to raise the National Minimum Wage for 18 to 20-year-olds from £10.85 to £11.27, and the National Living Wage for those aged 21 and over from £12.71 to £13.20, according to reports cited by SBC News. Cleland said higher wage costs combined with tax rises and property expenses leave operators fewer options to protect margins, sharpening decisions on shop closures, staffing and future investment.
The Betting and Gaming Council, another industry trade body, has estimated that doubling the standard MGD rate would cost 3,800 jobs. Flutter Entertainment has already attributed the loss of more than 1,400 jobs across its business to April's increase in Remote Gaming Duty. Butler said the scale of Flutter's restructuring was particularly notable given the size of the operator involved.